Court: FBI can't withhold whole file on Don Young probe

1/10/12 12:00 PM EST

The Federal Bureau of Investigation was wrong to categorically withhold all records of a corruption probe of Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), a federal judge ruled Tuesday.

Acting in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, U.S. District Court Judge Gladys Kessler said that while records of probes of private individuals are regularly withheld as a categorical matter, investigations into public officials should not be treated the same way. In addition, she rejected the Justice Department's arguments that the only reason to grant CREW's request would be if there was evidence of impropriety on the part of the federal agency that conducted the probe, in this instance, the FBI.

It is difficult to understand how there could not be a substantial public interest in disclosure of documents regarding the manner in which DoJ handled high profile allegations of public corruption about an elected official. Clearly, the American public has a right to know about the manner in which its representatives are conducting themselves and whether the government agency responsible for investigating and, if warranted, prosecuting those representatives for alleged illegal conduct is doing its job.

Given the fact that Rep. Young was at that time Chair of the House of Representatives Transportation Committee, and given the detailed remarks he made on the floor of the House of Representatives about this matter, there is a substantial public interest in examining the adequacy of DoJ’s enforcement of other types of law governing the activities of federal officials, in addition to the explicit direction given by Congress to DoJ to investigate the Coconut Road matter....

The public needs to know how DoJ carried out its statutory duties to investigate allegations of bribery and corruption of members of
Congress. That is the purpose of FOIA.

The judge ordered Justice to prepare a document-by-document index of the responsive records and to explain why each that is withheld is exempt from disclosure.